Publishing news highlights from March, with a focus on what’s important to the world of scholarly publishing:

A dozen new positions posted to AAUP jobs board

Whether you’re looking to break into scholarly publishing or move on up, the Association of American University Presses Jobs List is the best place to find the opportunity that fits you best. Publishers posted twelve new openings in March alone, including spots in acquisitions, marketing, manuscript editing, and journals production and content management.

University presses report increase in sales, led by e-books

According to the latest report from the American Association of Publishers, university press book sales of e-books, cloth-bound books, and paperbacks increased between January 2011 and January 2012. Reported e-book sales were $900,000 for the month, a 90.9% jump, while hardcover sales were $6.9 million and paperbacks $10.1 million, an 11.5% and 8.8$ increase respectively.

Bowker research shows 20% of world’s readers have bought at least one e-book in the past six months

In a ten-nation online survey of book readers, Bowker Market Research’s Global eBook Monitor found that one in five purchased an e-book over the past half year and a solid 80% of readers across the developed world were aware of e-books. The survey found that the United States, United Kingdom, India, and Australia lead the world in e-book buying and projects that e-book sales will gain big in Brazil and India in the coming six months, with readers in the former expected to triple their purchases and those in the latter to double theirs. And it appears that scholarly presses ought to pay close attention to India and South Korea, where e-book purchases are concentrated on professional, academic, and business titles.

Apple sells 3 million iPad 3s in the first week

In news that could be good for publishers everywhere if consumers continue to embrace digital reading, Apple reported selling 3 million of its brand new iPad 3 in the first three days the tablet was available.

BEA explains direct-to-consumer plans

As previously noted here, plans have been afoot for a little while to make some portion of this year’s BookExpoAmerica open to the public. In a post to BEA’s official blog this past Tuesday, Event Director Steve Rosato expanded on the organization’s plans, explaining the two ways BEA executives envision engaging the reading public. One is to livestream author events. The other is a partnership with “publishers, local booksellers, and libraries as well as other industry players to make a very limited and exclusive amount of tickets available” for the final day of the Expo, Thursday, June 7.

Marijuana shipment to St. Martin’s Press seized

In what should be an April Fools Day story, federal agents earlier this month intercepted an 11-pound marijuana shipment destined for New York City trade publishing house St. Martin’s Press. The pot’s estimated $70,000 street value could certainly subsidize a few books; we’re still puzzling over how the royalties would break down, though.

The Scholarly BIN (Book Industry News) is a semi-regular roundup of news about and of interest to the scholarly publishing industry. Got a tip? Please send it along to Brendan Coyne.